Playful People

Time is such an amazing thing – it seems to have the ability to slow down or speed up just when you least expect it to. Not only that – Allah swears by time! I mean, that must mean something really big but we just don’t realise it… yet.

But isn’t time just another creation of Allah? It’s just something He SWT made, rite? So is there actually a place out there where there is no time? I don’t mean like when you’ve got a 9am exam the next morning and you haven’t revised! I bet there are millions of places like that. I mean literally “NO TIME”!

But hold on… So what was there before there was time? Well, there was no “before” if there was no time? Waoh! Stop there – brain lock! Can’t even comprehend that far out.

I think I’ve learnt from experience, there is really no point trying to understand the “How’s” and the “Why’s” behind God. The only thing to contemplate over is whether He exists or not, that’s it yaar. The more you think about it, the more you realise how blatant the answer is. Even a beetle larva knows it.

Anyway, what’s the point of knowing about all the other mysteries if you don’t even know what’s going to happen to you after you die? Muslims are so blessed man – I need to be much more thankful big time.

And one way I’m going to be thankful is to improve my use of time. I want to increase my time in ibadah and improving myself. But also I realised something only very recently: University is the bestest time for dawah! Once you leave Uni, you’ll never be able to meet soooo many people all in one place. I love blogging and I really like all the people I’ve met through this blog. There are even a few people I think I would really love if I knew them in real life. But it’s taking up too much of my time. There are a couple of other reasons too. A friend of mine had a conversation with me that made me think about what I was doing and what I should be doing. I think it all depends on your situation – if you’re at Uni then surely meeting people in person is better, rite?

Anyway, that’s what I think – so for now, this blog is over! Goodbye all – make dua for me and who knows… I may pop up somewhere again some day… just when you’re least expecting it!

Saffy x x

Ya Allah! Please guide my colleagues and I to the Deen of Islam... and destroy our George Bush... and bring our people onto the siraatul mustaqeem... Ameen.

Hi guys! Nope, I haven’t died – unfortunately for you know who – you know who you are! Saffy continues to rock so HAH – thanks to Allah of course. Hee.

Wow – feels like I haven’t seen you people in ages. I guess I just lost track of time. I’ve got way too much to be able to handle on my own but more just keeps coming – is it supposed to be that hard?

On top of that I’ve been doing something else that has distracted me from the internet… Dawah! Yey, I’ve actually been doing some dawah all by myself and I love it. I started doing it because I found out it’s fard but now I love it. I discussed with a sister last week until Fajr time about Islam’s view on nationalism! She didn’t agree with me in the end but at least I got bare reward, rite? Plus there’s another sister who’s really sharp and I can see how she changing like I changed and I love that too.

I hope my intention hasn’t changed – EEK! Please make dua for me, I’m only little. I just want everyone to understand what I’ve realised now. I mean the other day I met a bunch of dawah carriers at Uni and they wanted me to come with them for an hour to give towards God.

*HUH*

What does that mean even? They explained that when I’m studying at Uni, I do that for myself and everything else I do during the week is for myself so I should give one hour to God at least once a week! It really upset me that practising Muslims still think like that. I thought as a Muslim I was worshipping God whilst I’m studying and doing everything else! It’s that Secular stuff again – oooh it keeps coming back just to purposefully annoy me :( I’ll GET you Mr Evil Secular Man for mashing up my brothers’ and sisters’ thinking.

I know this is going to sound crazy (maybe even dodgy) but I think I’m starting to see Islam differently to most other people. There’s just a few sisters who think like I do and they can answer questions that even my Islamic Class Teacher can’t answer – when I ask my teacher questions I’m told to “have sabr” and that “Allah works in mysterious ways” (but said in Bengali – Allai zeta khoroin, mongolor lagi khoroin – who’s this mongol guy anyway and why is everything always done for him?). Anyway, why does it feel dodgy that these Uni sisters with no formal Islamic education feel they can answer all of my toughest questions? Does it feel dodgy coz they’re too young to be able to refute Scholars with years of experience and knowledge? Or maybe the Scholars that I have access to are the kind of ones that say stuff that the Government likes and all the good ones are in prison somewhere :(

Hmm… I don’t know… like I remember in Bangladesh I was watching some 15 year old boys playing football and they were truly amazing – much better than 15 year olds in London. So I asked my cousin bhaiya why the Bangladesh National Football Team is so lame. He told me that you can only get into the team in Bangladesh if you have an uncle or some other link in the Government. There was some major political corruption thing going down. So the National Team was not an accurate reflection of how good Bangladeshis really are at football. It must be the same for the cricket team coz they’re pretty lame too. That probably also explains why I’m never impressed with Miss Bangladesh in the Miss World competitions – actually that’s more likely coz none of the beautiful Muslim sisters would ever enter such a lame, degrading competition to begin with. Hey, inshallah if we ever get a Khilafah, maybe we could have a competition called Miss Taqwa 2006 ;) That’s why Allah made us competitive, rite?



Anyway, maybe that’s how it is with these sisters. Maybe they just seem so amazing only coz I’ve never met a real scholar before. I guess the only way I’ll find out is by discussing what I learn with as many people as possible and seeing what everyone has to say. Oh my gosh, I really hope none of them read this blog – that’ll be so embarrassing – nah, I don’t think they’ve got time for that – thank God! They’re always too busy busy, even to spend a little time with me…

I’m back! Yep, it’s meeeeeeee!

Eid Mubarak to all nice people out there!

I had a wonderful Eid this year – I got to meet so many cousins (if you remember one of my early posts I was saying I hadn’t seen most of my cousins in years).

Anyway, Eid has made me a wiser person coz this year I made the classic Eid mistake. Can you guess what it is?

No, I didn’t fast with shaytan on Eid (in Bangladesh they always celebrate Eid two days later – mashed)! I thought Islam was supposed to have answers for new situations - so how are we supposed to deal with this problem? Hmm... I really don't like thinking about this one - it makes me so sad that I'm not celebrating on the same day as my cousin in Bangladesh :(

*BIG SIGH*

Ok, guess again?

No, I didn’t forget to pay my Zakat-ul-Fitr until Eid day :P In Bangladesh that would be ok coz there’s plenty of starving peeps around but since I’m now in England, it’s all about paying the Zakat-ul-Fitr two weeks in advance so it can fly to starving people around the world. Yeah, I know most people don’t realise this but the whole point of this Zakat in particular is that no-one should go hungry on Eid. It drives me round the bend when Mr Imam Sahib says to put any Fitranah money into “box for Masjid extension”. Grr…

Like usual Dad came home shouting at Mr Imam Sahib. He was angry coz the Imam was Bengali but apparently he was not a good speaker. Abba thinks that the Pakistani Mosque Committee purposefully find wimpy Bengali Imams to make Bengali people look stupid. Dad thinks we should set up our own Bengali Mosque. I didn’t agree – What happened to One Ummah man? Anyway, I bet even if the entire Mosque Committee became Bengali they would still fight over which part of Bangladesh they’re from and which tribe they're from. I’ve seen them doing it Bangladesh. I think they need some serious mentality re-boot! Out with the old (nationalism and tribalism) and in with the new (bonded by Islam)!

Outside the Mosque some HT guys were giving out leaflets about a conference this Sunday in Euston about the anti-terror legislation and how we should deal with it. These guys need to take a break some time – someone should introduce them to the concept of KIT KAT! :) Some of the speakers are from Stop Political Terror and the rest are from HT. I think I’ll be going to it and see what they have to say inshallah.

Ok back to me! Any more guesses? Ok, I’ll tell you… I got a POT! Yep, that’s my classic Eid mistake: POT!

:(

It’s so horrible but I couldn’t help it – I always get a POT on every Eid. I didn’t eat any breakfast and then by the time all the men came back from the Mosque, I was starving so I ate everything. I had to taste everything coz there were so many nice things. Then we went to all of these different houses. Each house was hiding another delicious surprise. So I ate and ate until… I got POT. I can’t even hide it under my clothes. You can see it and it’s so big and round like I’ve hidden a massive bowl on top of my belly. But it’s not a bowl, it really is my belly and it looks like a pot.

It reminds me of those little damaged like, grey teddy bears you can get with the little bellies that stick out. That’s what I looked like... Amongst many other valuable lessons, I have learnt this Eid the consequences of not having a little bit of patience. I hope nobody else got POT and everyone had a good Eid. I really want everyone to have a better Eid next year. Ameen.

I have decided that I need to go underground for a bit. So no more posts from me until... erm... after Eid I guess.

The idea is I want to get away from everything for a bit and see if I can soften my heart with the remembrance of Allah :)

You'd think it would be easy coz I'm only little but that's where you're wrong! I maybe little but I have a HUUUGGEE heart with lots of room for lots of people so it takes longer to soften up.

Please don't think I'm turning Secular and leaving the dawah and society worships. I still believe that studying, working, dawah, politics are just as much worship as salah, fasting, zakat and Hajj. I know that my beloved Prophet "PBUH" did nothing else but worship Allah but that included being a father, a husband and even a soldier (wow, you wouldn't think it with all this spiritual spiritual stuff going around).

I know all that - but I still want to find my corner and hide in it for a while away from everything and my justification is that my Prophet "PBUH" used to do it too in the last ten days of Ramadhan. So there :P

I think what has happened is that because some people have turned Islam into a ritualistic, individualistic religion where you just worry about perfecting yourself and only that, other people have just gone all out and decided that if you try to seclude yourself from society to better yourself than you're automatically Secular, or Sufi or some other silly label. Well, the difference with my decision is that it's only temporary and it's based on what our Messenger "PBUH" did. Once Ramadhan is over I'll come out of my ibadaa like a beautiful butterfly coming out of a caccoon inshAllah.

It's the only way I can properly repent for some of the stuff I did before I got some sense knocked into me. In case you miss me too much (and also so I don't feel like I've neglected the dawah) you can go read this post:

Enigma Behind the Freshers Stall

It's written by Babs-M who never ceases to amaze me with the clarity of his posts. Something that is usually missing from mine :(

Anyway, it's full of wholesome dawah goodness (erm... it's a bit x-rated as well so only read if you don't get easily offended). I'm not saying this style will work everytime but I truly believe good dawah is always about flexibility - I'm pretty flexible when it comes to Yoga but when it's dawah my tongue gets all twisty twisty.

Hopefully, I've wriggled myself into some of your hearts by now and if I have, all I ask is that you pray for me so I can sort myself out and that Allah helps me in that.

I'm off on my long journey now... Hugs and kisses for all o x o x o x

It makes my blood boil watching my Iraqi brothers and sisters sticking their fingers in little pots of indelible ink and then voting either “YES” or “NO” (that’s the only two options) for the new (enslave Iraq) constitution. It’s just so embarrassing! They’re being treated like naughty little kids who are now being given a book of Do’s and Don’ts and then told to sign it to make them feel involved. It's so insulting!

That’s what my mum used to do. She’d get us all involved in making a “family decision” so that we’d all feel part of the decision but really she had already decided what was going to happen all along. The only difference is that we were like 10 years old!

I guess these Iraqi people don’t really have a choice in anything much these days. Grr… it makes me angry. Does anyone remember the Transformers? There was a kid called Daniel who is given this EXO-SUIT by one of the Autobots. It basically gives Daniel the ability to transform into a car and also has big powerful guns on his arms. That was sooo cool! I was a bit of a boy when I little, ok? Hey, I’ve dealt with it now so :P …no more wishing I was a man – I have overcome all of those issues… ahem, moving swiftly on.

Well, I imagined myself with an EXO-SUIT yesterday but MY one is much more powerful and has ultra-super defences and everything else. Plus it has pictures of all my favourite things on the outside (to give it my personal touch). Oh, yeah and it wears Hijab… HeeHee

Anyway, at the time I was imagining this I was waiting on the platform for a train. It was early morning and the platform was completely empty so I felt fine running around doing all these fantastic moves and imagining that I was finally setting things right in the world with my EXO-SUIT. I had to make all these explosion noises with my mouth to make it more real and then I turned around to see a sweet old man staring at me. He looked oh so confused and genuinely worried about me rather than himself. He just continued staring with his mouth open and head tilted to one side.

So I gave him one of my heart-melting smiles (they’re special ones that I reserve for special occasions) and then quickly sat down on the bench. Well, now I can’t do anything practical for the Muslims sitting on a bench, waiting for a train, so instead I made a little prayer. I prayed that the Iraqi people will very soon inshallah have their own constitution. I prayed that it would be put together by the Iraqi people. I prayed that it would be taken solely from the Quran and Sunnah and so naturally it would be full of justice (the kind of justice that even the sincerest non-Muslims simply can’t comprehend because it can only be appreciated when it is implemented in its entirety. I prayed that this constitution would be a beacon of light for all the oppressed people in the world. I prayed that this constitution would be an example for all the Muslim Governments in the world. I prayed that this constitution would be built upon mercy and compassion instead of brutality and corruption and so it would spread across the world by the will of the people just like the constitution my beloved Prophet "PBUH" wrote spread around the world.

*BIG SIGH*

And lastly I prayed that Allah gives me the chance to one day be a part of all this so that through this constitution I can touch the lives of, quite literally, billions of people. Ameen. Ameen. Ameen.

The last few months have been proper confusing for me. It’s amazing but my likes and dislikes are changing right in front of my face! I mean there’s a difference between liking the idea of something and actually liking it itself. I’ve always liked the idea of praying but I never used to like doing it – but I’m starting to actually look forward to it! Aaaaaagggghhhhh! What’s happening – I’m turning into one of them MOSLEM type people!

But it’s soooo true. If your thinking is right, your feelings will follow. I think I’m in some transitional stage where my feelings are still way behind my thinking. Anyway, one BIG example of that are BOYS. I used to like mashed boys! The more mashed they were, the more I liked them (liked being with them but I never really liked them, I guess).

Anyway, now there’s this bro at Uni who I see in the canteen. He’s always talking to non-Muslims and even Muslims about Islam and I can hear him talking if I sit close enough. He’s really funny too and he’s so good at making the non-Muslims feel relaxed and laugh even at tense moments. Plus he doesn’t shy away from the controversial issues. I’ve heard him discussing about how you can know God exists, he talks about the four marriage thing and the different types of punishments and everything. But he has this way of making it all make sense only if all the Islamic rulings are put in their right context.

He's exactly what Tony Blair would describe as an extremist coz I’ve heard him talking about khilafah too. He was talking about how the khilafah has this amazing system to solve the poverty epidemic all around the world. I can’t remember how he explained it but I remember it made so much sense at the time. He’s like no other guy I’ve met before. He doesn’t look Islamic AT ALL but he sounds so knowledgeable and passionate about it – which makes up for it, I guess. Heehee.

I’m giggling now so I might as well say it – I like him! But I don’t know what to do about it. He’s probably noticed that I’m always sitting on the table near enough to him to hear him talking and it’s so embarrassing but I can’t find anyone else that can explain things like him. I’ve never seen him talking to a girl before. If I spoke to him would he say: “Astagfirullaaaaaaaaaaaah you mashed girl, get out of my face”.

And then he might think I just want to cause FITNA in his life, like the guy who does the speech at Jumma says. He always saying women are FITNA and even though I don’t know what that means exactly, I know from the tone of his voice, it’s definitely not a good thing. Hmm…

Oh well, I remain lonely and confused as ever before.